Thursday, April 12, 2007

It was "Dog Night" last night, meaning fans were encouraged to bring their pooches to the park. But the rain meant few fans showed up, so they'll be having another Dog Night later this season.

The Bats won, meaning they took three of four from the Clippers. Bubba was not in the lineup. Yeah, I know, there was a southpaw on the mound, but still...it was the second day in a row he was out of the lineup. On a team that theoretically has only three outfielders. I e-mailed the Bats radio announcers during the game and asked them if they knew why. They didn't; they said so far as they knew, he wasn't hurt or anything.

Then they started wondering if my e-mail was from C. Trent.

Which led them to wondering what "Consigliere" means (that's Trent's nickname, inspired by the The Sopranos). They wanted to Google it, but couldn't spell it. Bellhorn hit a three-run homer, and at least one of them missed it, because he was busy Googling "consigliere."

They were still Googling it an inning later.

Anyway, Bubba did eventually get into the game last night. It was kind of weird. He was in the on-deck circle in 7th, as if he were going to bat for Dumatrait, the pitcher. But he sat back down, and Dumatrait batted for himself. But Dumatrait didn't pitch the next inning; he was pulled for Majewski. I'm not sure what was going on there. A feint, trying to get them to switch pitchers? Some subtlety of double switches that went over the head of an AL fan like me? Or were they just worried they'd run out of bench players to sub in?

Anyway, Bubba actually did hit for the pitcher in the 8th inning. The Bats were up 4-2, so the game wasn't on the line, though some insurance runs would have been welcome. Bases loaded, two outs. Called strike, swinging strike, foul, ball, ball, another swinging strike. Drat.

Bubba's back on the interstate: .190 / .292 / .476 / .768. Still a very small sample size, of course - only 21 at-bats.

Meanwhile...Encarnacion was benched last night, for not running out a popup. Narron said:

Eddie did not run and he told me he didn’t see where the ball was, but you’ve still got to run. I don’t care if we lose every game, we’re not going to play guys who don’t hustle. It’s as simple as that. We’ll pinch-hit pitchers, we’ll play pitchers if we have to. If you cannot hustle, you cannot play. It’s as simple as that. Eddie will probably be back in there Friday, but I tell you want, if they don’t run balls out, they’re not going to play. I don’t care if we lose every game, we’re going to hustle while they do it.

And A-Gon has been granted bereavement leave to deal with a family problem in Venezuela. He'll be gone at least three days. The Reds are expected to make a roster move Friday. No word on who they'll call up. Maybe Votto; he's on the 40-man and has options. Maybe Hopper; he's played a few rehab games in Sarasota, and could be ready to come off the DL. Probably not Bubba or Bellhorn for such a short gig, since they're out of options.